Latest news with #PentagonPizzaIndex
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
‘Papa Johns still reporting...'; Pentagon Pizza tracker drops new hint as Iran's bombs US airbases in Qatar
As Middle East tensions increase, an intriguing crowdsourced theory called the 'Pentagon Pizza Index' has gained popularity on the internet. Some even speculated that the US could be discreetly going into crisis mode behind closed doors when users on X (previously Twitter) reported an unexpected increase of pizza delivery near the Pentagon and Department of Defense in Washington, D.C., on June 12 and 13. Pentagon Pizza Report, a well-known X account with the handle @PenPizzaReport, claims to offer 'open-source tracking of pizza spot activity around the Pentagon (and other places).' Despite being around for decades, the theory has just now found its way into social media. Pentagon Pizza Report, a well-known X account with the handle @PenPizzaReport, claims to offer 'open-source tracking of pizza spot activity around the Pentagon (and other places).' On June 12, Pentagon Pizza Report stated in an update on X, 'nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity' at approximately 7 p.m. local time. Using a search engine's 'Popular Times' function, the post displayed what looked to be screen shots of four distinct pizza places that were busier than normal: We, The Pizza, Domino's Pizza, District Pizza Palace, and Extreme Pizza. The latest resurgence of the hypothesis between pizza activity and the Pentagon occurred the night when Israel's military launched a series of attacks to destroy Iranian nuclear facilities and missile infrastructure. Pentagon reacts to Pentagon Pizza Report A Pentagon spokesman told Newsweek that the tweets from the Pentagon Pizza Report 'did not align with the events.' The spokesperson told Newsweek that there 'are many pizza options available inside the Pentagon, also sushi, sandwiches, donuts, coffee, etc,' indicating that the Pentagon does not appear to be short on pizza options inside its headquarters. Also Read: Israel issues chilling '12 hours' warning to top Iranian General amid war; 'Otherwise, you're on…' Pizza tracker reports high activity at Papa John's near Pentagon Pizza tracker detected 'HIGH activity' at Papa John's near the Pentagon before US President Donald Trump confirmed that American airplanes had hit three nuclear sites in Iran. Just 30 minutes after the pizza traffic alarm, Trump declared on his Truth Social account that the US military had successfully attacked three important sites connected to Iran's nuclear enrichment program—Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. 'A full payload of BOMBS was dropped on the primary site, Fordow. Thank you for your attention to this matter,' Trump wrote. Pentagon Pizza Index later reiterated Trump's statement, 'Thank you for your attention to this matter.' The same account also mentioned 'abnormally low activity levels' at Freddie's Beach Bar, a popular spot close to the Pentagon. The account described the calm night as a 'classic indicator for potential overtime at the Pentagon,' implying that either something significant was happening or people were working late. Approximately 30 minutes prior to Trump's national address, at approximately 9:36 p.m. Eastern Time, the account also reported a 'HUGE traffic surge' at the Domino's near MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. On April 23, Pentagon Pizza Tracker wrote: 'The Papa Johns closest to the Pentagon is reporting high traffic, well above the average for a Monday at about 12:10pm ET.' In retaliation for the American assault of its nuclear installations, Iran began missile attacks on US military airbases in Qatar and Iraq on Monday. Meanwhile, Iran claimed to have targeted US soldiers based at Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base on state television. 'A mighty response to America's aggression' As martial music played, a caption on the screen described it as 'a mighty and successful response' to 'America's aggression.' According to an Iraqi security officer who spoke to The Associated Press, Iran also attacked the Ain al-Assad facility in western Iraq that houses American forces. Since the official was not permitted to make public comments, they talked on condition of anonymity. The strikes happened soon after Qatar closed its airspace in response to Iranian threats. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on the social media site X just before the explosions: "We neither initiated the war nor seeking it. But we will not leave invasion to the great Iran without answer.'
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Business Standard
7 days ago
- Politics
- Business Standard
The Pentagon Pizza Index: How pizza orders may predict global crises
It's not an intelligence leak or satellite feed. It's not even a diplomatic whisper. It's pizza. A fresh slice of conspiracy or perhaps insight is doing the rounds again. This time, it's tied to the escalating Israel-Iran tensions. And at the heart of it? A quirky, yet strangely compelling indicator known as the 'Pentagon Pizza Index'. On the evening of June 12, an unusual spike in pizza delivery activity was reportedly observed near the Pentagon, the five-sided nerve centre of the US Department of Defense. According to the X account 'Pentagon Pizza Report', which tracks open-source data on local pizza spot activity, four pizzerias—We, The Pizza, Domino's, District Pizza Palace, and Extreme Pizza—saw a sharp rise in orders just before 7 pm ET. 'As of 6:59 pm ET nearly all pizza establishments nearby the Pentagon have experienced a HUGE surge in activity,' the account posted. Hours later, Israel launched a surprise military operation targeting Iranian nuclear and missile facilities. The proximity of events fuelled speculation—and reignited the theory that a sudden surge in pizza orders near key US military installations often signals a looming geopolitical flashpoint. A theory baked over decades While it might sound like something out of a Netflix thriller, the idea has roots going back to the Cold War. Soviet spies reportedly tracked late-night pizza deliveries around Washington, suspecting it reflected heightened military readiness. They even coined a term for it: Pizzint—short for 'pizza intelligence'. As Frank Meeks, the former owner of 43 Domino's outlets in Washington, told the Los Angeles Times in 1991: 'The news media doesn't always know when something big is going to happen because they're in bed, but [pizza] deliverers are out there at 2 in the morning.' He pointed to one particular night—August 1, 1990—when the CIA ordered a record 21 pizzas. Hours later, Iraq invaded Kuwait, triggering the Gulf War. CNN's then-Pentagon correspondent, Wolf Blitzer, even reportedly said, 'Bottom line for journalists: Always monitor the pizzas.' Fast forward to now, and the tradition continues, albeit through the lens of digital breadcrumbs. The Pentagon Pizza Report uses tools like Google Maps' 'Popular Times' feature to spot traffic spikes at pizzerias around Arlington County, Virginia. The June 12 data? It came just before 'Operation Rising Lion', Israel's major military move. What the experts say Alex Selby-Boothroyd, Head of Data Journalism at The Economist, also gave the theory a nod on LinkedIn, writing, 'The Pentagon Pizza Index has been a surprisingly reliable predictor of seismic global events—from coups to wars—since the 1980s.' Still, officials are understandably cautious about endorsing pizza-fuelled predictions. When asked by Fox Business, the US Department of Defense said it had 'nothing to offer' on the matter. A Pentagon spokesperson further told Newsweek that the activity observed by Pentagon Pizza Report did "not align with the events" and reminded the public that there are 'many pizza options available inside the Pentagon, also sushi, sandwiches, donuts, coffee, etc".
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Criterion turned its film archives into a streaming powerhouse
The average consumer subscribes to 4.5 streaming services, many of which offer content that feels largely indistinguishable from one another. How one company is revolutionizing the way we use everyday water Pentagon Pizza Index: The theory that surging pizza orders signal global crises 5 signals that make you instantly more trustworthy at work When Netflix disrupted film and television in the late 2010s, it introduced a new model of viewership: an endless blend of originals and archives, delivered through a finely tuned personalization algorithm. Today, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, and many others follow the same playbook. Not the Criterion Channel. The streamer rejects the infinite-content model, instead curating rotating collections of select films that appear for just a few months. Their offerings range from mass-market to niche indie: A recent example, 'Surveillance Cinema,' matched the $350 million-earning Minority Report with the tiny French neo-noir Demonlover. It also turns away from algorithmic recommendations—every title is handpicked by a programmer. Aliza Ma, the Criterion Channel's head of programming, says that she's 'offended' by the big streamers' model of curation. 'It's absurd in the face of art and curiosity that you would think somebody's past behavior could indicate future taste,' she tells Fast Company. This approach has earned the Criterion Channel a loyal following among artistically curious cinephiles, creating a stable, low-churn subscriber base. For just $10.99 a month, viewers from the U.S. and Canada can escape the clutches of streamer sludge. The mega-viral Criterion Closet doesn't hurt either. 'I would have expected that broader is better,' Ma says. 'It's a brilliant surprise to us that the more specific we get, the more we pull focus on a subject or theme, the better it seems to reach people.' For over 30 years, Criterion was known as a seller and refurbisher of physical media. Their DVD and Blu-ray archives sustained the business, while the company licensed their films to several video-on-demand (VOD) services. First they were available on Mubi, then Hulu, and finally FilmStruck, the streamer from Turner Classic Movies. But when FilmStruck shut down in 2018, Criterion president Peter Becker and his team decided to create their own point of access. The Criterion Channel was running by 2019 and has since eclipsed the company's physical media business. In 2024, Criterion and its sister company, Janus Films, were sold to billionaire Steven Rales, founder of the film studio Indian Paintbrush and a minority owner of the Indiana Pacers. The channel's focus on curation naturally narrows its appeal. In the ongoing 'streaming wars,' Criterion isn't trying to compete on scale. Instead, it leans into its niche. 'You have to think you care about movies enough to want a streaming service really devoted to movies,' Becker says. But specificity also creates a highly loyal customer base, he adds. Asked whether one specific collection surged traffic at the site, Becker notes that there are 'different points of entry for everybody.' Some are more popular within the streamer's walls than others—both Ma and Becker reference the 2023 'High School Horror' set featuring movies like Donnie Darko and I Know What You Did Last Summer. But subscribers come more for the curation than for any individual film, meaning they're likely to stay longer. Michael Cunningham, acclaimed author of Day and The Hours (the latter of which was adapted into a film starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman), is a subscriber to the Criterion Channel. 'I'm a fan because Criterion is keeping alive films that would otherwise fade away and be forgotten,' he writes in an email to Fast Company. 'It reminds us that greatness resides in a wide range of movies, from Potemkin to Some Like It Hot.' Estimating the Criterion Channel's size is a difficult task. The company declined to provide Fast Company with revenue or user figures, only saying that it 'has grown steadily since we launched.' When its predecessor FilmStruck shut down in 2018, the subscriber base was estimated at just 100,000. The Criterion Channel has likely surpassed this—it has over 100,000 downloads on the Google Play store alone. But that's still small compared with other specialty streamers like Mubi, which has more than 5 million Google Play downloads. It's audience is also shifting. 'If you had gone back 10 or 15 years and looked at who was collecting DVDs and Blu-rays, you would have seen a heavy disproportion of people who were male and over 30,' Becker says. 'That has been completely shattered.' Criterion, the company behind the channel, still operates its specialty DVD business and commissions a stable of writers to pen essays on its archive. But the Criterion Channel is the company's 'most far-reaching project,' Becker says. And then there's the company's infamous closet. It began in 2010, when Guillermo del Toro stepped into Criterion's DVD archive in New York and picked out his favorites. Choosing among a collection organized only by spine number, del Toro professed his love for François Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Criterion has continued to pump out these 'Closet Picks'—the videos are now significantly less grainy—and posts them to YouTube. 'We record a couple a week, and we're always amazed by the conversations we have in there,' Becker says. 'I think it's a relief for the people in the Closet, because they don't have to talk about their own movies.' Creatives see the Criterion Closet as more than a stop on their press tour, though. Griffin Dunne, star of films like Martin Scorcese's After Hours, relished the opportunity to rifle through Criterion's archives. 'There are a few benchmarks in an actor's or director's career,' Dunne wrote in an email to Fast Company. 'Getting your first job, any job, in the movie business. Seeing your name in a New York Times review for your first film. Getting nominated or winning for any of the EGOTs. Being invited to the Criterion Closet to talk about your favorites films.' The closet has since gone mobile. Criterion now takes a portable version on the road, drawing fans who line up for hours. Becker even recalls a couple who got engaged inside. 'We're always amazed and gratified at how young the people who come out are,' he says, noting that most attendees are in their 20s and early 30s. The traveling closet of films also reveals the diversity of Criterion's audience. Few titles are picked more than a handful of times. While some favorites recur—Richard Linklater's films, for example, or Anora—most picks are highly personal and eclectic. Has the Criterion Closet helped funnel audiences back to their streamer or paid offerings? Becker isn't interested in talking shop. The closet wasn't set up as a marketing tool, so they don't track it as one. But it has been a helpful brand extension, he concedes. 'When 13 million people see the Ben Affleck video, that's a lot of people,' Becker says. 'We're definitely reaching more people than would have sought us out without it.' Affleck's first pick from the Criterion Closet was Jean Renoir's The Rules of the Game, the 1939 French satire celebrated for its humanist worldview. It's hard to imagine the film finding traction on Netflix. How would they package it? What thumbnail image or search-friendly pitch could make it click? Its age alone might be a barrier—back in March, the oldest title on Netflix was 1973's The Sting. But viewers can find The Rules of the Game on the Criterion Channel. It appears in a 'French Poetic Realism' collection, alongside commentary from Cunningham, the novelist. They can watch the film, explore its historical context, and dip into criticism, too. That's what the Criterion Channel offers: not just content, but curation. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Time of India
18-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
A slice of crisis: Is pizza the Pentagon's secret political barometer?
Imagine a world where global crises aren't just brewing in diplomatic cables or hushed war rooms but subtly telegraphed by an unexpected surge in pizza sales. It sounds like something out of a spy novel, yet this fascinating concept, popularly known as the Pentagon Pizza Index , is once again sparking conversation. From its shadowy Cold War origins to recent viral moments on social media, this quirky, unofficial theory suggests that a sudden rush of pizza — or any takeout food —to the US defense and intelligence hubs could be the first delicious hint of an impending major geopolitical event. What is the Pentagon Pizza Index? The Pentagon Pizza Index is a quirky, unofficial theory that suggests a surge in pizza (or other takeout food) orders to the Pentagon and other US Defense or intelligence buildings can indicate an impending major geopolitical event. On June 14, two Domino's locations near the Pentagon registered abnormally high amounts of traffic for a Friday (throughout the day and evening), hinting at the onset of the Iran-Isarel conflict. The logic It is believed that when government officials and staff are working late into the night on urgent, high stakes matters (like military operations, international conflicts, or significant policy decisions), they can't leave their posts for food. Therefore, they rely heavily on quick, shareable, convenient and calorie-rich food like pizza to keep them going. A dramatic increase in pizza orders signals heightened activity and a potential crisis brewing. When pepperoni predicted peril This intriguing theory known as 'Pizza Intelligence,' or 'Pizzint,' goes back to the Cold War. At that time, Soviet analysts reportedly kept a close eye on pizza deliveries to US government buildings. Sudden surges in food orders to the CIA & Pentagon, were considered informal indicators of the looming crisis. In 1990 Frank Meeks, a Washington DC Domino's franchise owner, observed a spike in orders to CIA buildings. The next day, Iraq invaded Kuwait, confirming his 'Pizzint' suspicions. Unusual? Surely One of the most notable recent instances of the Pentagon Pizza Index in action occurred on April 13, 2024. That night, as Iran unleashed a massive drone and missile strike against Israel, screenshots from various food delivery platforms showed pizzerias surrounding the Pentagon, White House, and Department of Defence tagged with the telling status of 'busier than usual.' (Source: Economic Times) Pentagon to the Pizza Index: 'We got sushi too' A Pentagon spokesperson reacted to the Pizza delivery index of June 13 and clarified they do not need to order pizza as there are many pizza options inside Pentagon and also, they have sushi, sandwiches, donuts, etc. According to a report published by Tasting Tables, March 27, 2025, the Pentagon, has cafes for quick coffee runs to full meals. Here's a sampler: McDonald's Dunkin Donuts Baskin-Robbins Taco Bell Panda Express Jamba Juice Potbelly Sandwich Works Tropical Smoothie Café Panera Bread Subway Popeyes Starbucks Moe's Southwest Grill
India.com
17-06-2025
- Politics
- India.com
What Is Pizza Index? Curious Clue To America's War Mood Amid Israel-Iran Conflict
In the world of geopolitics, terms like soldiers, drones, missiles, and fighter jets usually dominate discussions around war. But what if the word pizza starts trending during a military conflict? That's exactly what happened amid rising tensions between Israel and Iran—and it's led analysts to revisit a quirky but intriguing phenomenon known as the Pizza Index Theory. Yes, you read that right. Now, let's give you more details: What Is the Pizza Index? Often referred to as the Pentagon Pizza Index, this theory suggests that a sudden spike in pizza orders around the Pentagon—headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense—can foreshadow an imminent military operation. The logic is simple but fascinating: when high-level, late-night meetings take place in the Pentagon—especially those involving national security—staffers often order pizza in large quantities, a trend that appears right before major military moves. The theory recently resurfaced when just before Israel launched a military strike on Iran, pizza delivery apps around the Pentagon showed a sharp rise in wait times. On June 12, social media platform X was flooded with screenshots showing unusually high delivery delays from pizza outlets near the Pentagon—particularly around 6 p.m. Interestingly, there had been no delays earlier in the day. This raised eyebrows: was there a crucial meeting happening at the Pentagon during that time? A few hours later, Israel struck Iran. Even former U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that Israel had informed the U.S. about the strike beforehand. The theory implies that the surge in pizza deliveries might have coincided with a high-level strategy session or military briefing. #DNAWithRahulSinha | पिज्जा इंडेक्स से पता चला हमला होने वाला है.. पिज्जा इंडेक्स और पेंटागन क्या है कनेक्शन ?#DNA #PizzaIndex #Pentagon #US @RahulSinhaTV — Zee News (@ZeeNews) June 17, 2025 The Numbers Don't Lie According to social media posts and order tracking data, the waiting time for pizza orders spiked around 6 p.m. on June 12 and gradually returned to normal by 7 p.m., indicating that the meeting may have wrapped up by then. Historical Patterns Though the Pentagon consistently denies the validity of such theories, historical patterns suggest otherwise: October 1983: The night before the U.S. invaded Grenada, pizza orders near the Pentagon reportedly doubled. December 1989: Prior to the U.S. invasion of Panama under President George H. W. Bush, pizza demand saw a sudden spike. August 1, 1990: On the eve of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Pentagon-area pizza orders surged. April 13, 2024: Just before Iran fired 300 drones and missiles at Israel, a spike in pizza deliveries around the Pentagon was recorded. Cold War era: Soviet spies reportedly monitored pizza delivery patterns in the U.S. and used the codename "Pizzint" (short for Pizza Intelligence) to anticipate possible military actions. Why Pizza? Pizza is quick, easily shareable, and convenient—making it the food of choice during long hours of strategizing. In fact, some American journalists jokingly say, 'Forget following the news—follow the pizza.' It's a light-hearted jab, but it reflects the unusual accuracy of this pattern over decades. So while it might sound like satire, the Pizza Index Theory has enough circumstantial backing to at least merit curiosity. Whether it's a coincidence or covert clue, it adds an oddly appetizing twist to the serious business of war. In modern warfare, it seems that before the missiles launch—pizza is delivered.
